Andrzej Nowacki. Exploring the square

Room 5: Square on paper
 

As well as the reliefs, since the late 1990s, Andrzej Nowacki has also devoted his work to one particular way of recording the moment. He produced extensive cycles of works (ranging from a dozen to countless numbers of sheets) in pastel and charcoal on paper, which he completed in the space of just a few hours. They record an unusual flow of energy, with the artist acting as a kind of intermediary. These paper squares add depth to another area of creativity. The colourfulness of the lined surface that is so characteristic of the reliefs is lacking; it is replaced by an unexpected plasticity of the paper. The careful lines of the relief disappear, yet the fragile quads do not lose their recognisable identity; they remain, like the theme of a complex improvisation, which returns in many different and yet recognisable variations. The artist’s infallible intuition sets flawless accents and contrasts in black, white and red.

Here, too, the passionate exploration of the material can be felt, which the artist exploits, in which he exists and expresses himself. It is also the passion for reaching the boundaries of his own power of expression, which is released in a spontaneous act of creation, more directly than in the reliefs. These small works reflect an intractable process of recognition that goes beyond the intellectual, which begins anew time and again at the place where the image surface and the drawing hand meet. All this within the existing square, which on the one hand marks out the boundaries of the experiment, while on the other ordering, realising and revealing the unlimited possibilities of search and discovery. (Figs. 34–41)